Posts tagged ‘Bluebird’

It’s time to change direction and take a look at some of the Gems from the Poster Halls at the recent American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting.

One particular abstract that looked interesting related to the Aduro compound, BION–1301, which is a monoclonal antibody targeting the B cell Maturation Antigen and its ligand, A Proliferation Inducing Ligand (BCMA-APRIL) in multiple myeloma.

Increasingly, there has been a lot of clinical interest in the BCMA target, but what about APRIL?

We spoke to one of the scientists involved in the research about this novel agent:

“It is very effective at abrogating the activity of APRIL and, in particular, in our models blocks the growth, survival, drug resistance, migration and adhesion of myeloma cells both in-vitro and in-vivo in our murine models. These models have been predictive for clinical activity of other novel targeted therapies including lenalidomide and bortezomib, and so we think targeting APRIL represents a very promising strategy.”

Sounds pretty good, right?

To learn more about what they had to say about this approach, subscribers can log-in or you can sign-up in the blue box below.

Anyone who has been to an ASH education session on AML knows how hard a nut it is to crack, so it’s wonderful to see some positive data, in what is commonly considered to be a “graveyard” disease.

The trial has taken a long time to come to fruition, so all credit to Dr Stone and colleagues. We’ll be writing up more about the data in our post meeting coverage. For additional background, you can also check out our FLT3 preview in AML, which details some of the history and context for this study. The data from the phase 3 study is likely to form the backbone of a registration filing for Novartis with this compound in the near future based on successfully meeting the trial endpoints.

We also kick off today’s highlights with quick reflections on some of the hot topics that emerged yesterday including Bluebird Bio’s lentiglobin, Bellicum’s pipeline and .

During the day, as the opportunity presents, we’ll also be providing commentary on sessions we attend.